Birmingham's Rucker Place continues a Christmas tradition with holiday lunch series

We are really pleased that we are able to open the house for the public to be able to come and have Christmas lunch in a historic home.

Owner Gail Thompson and chef Richard Bishop will open Rucker Place for Christmas lunch next week. (Joe Songer/al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – It’s Christmastime again at Rucker Place.

The house is decorated, and the menu is set.

And for the fifth holiday season, the 112-year-old Southside home, which is typically reserved for private events, will open its doors next week to serve Christmas lunch. It is a tradition that began in 2008.

“We are really pleased that we are able to open the house for the public to be able to come and have Christmas lunch in a historic home,” says Gail Thompson, who owns Rucker Place with her husband, Jack. “It’s just become a Birmingham tradition.”

Unlike in previous years, though, the Christmas lunches will be available for just one week – Monday, Dec. 17, through Friday, Dec. 21 – instead of two. With other events going on at the house during the holidays, it made more practical sense to limit the lunches to one week, Thompson says.

“We have the same number (of reservations) as we did in two weeks last year, and the reservations are still coming in,” she says. “We are able to do in a week what we were doing in two weeks, so that’s good.”

The Tuesday lunch has already sold out, Thompson adds, but seats are available for the other four days.